Paul_Treloar_
Director of Policy and Services, Disability Alliance, London
Member since 15th Sep 2006
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RE: A conversation I had with a tribunal member after the hearing.
Tue 25-Nov-08 08:56 PM |
I would urge caution about complaining. The facts are that you have had a conversation that (I'm assuming) was between yourself and the member in question and no-one else, therefore its your word against his/hers. You have a client whose recall is unreliable (yes, on medical grounds but that isn't an issue). You have an appeal that you have lost (so you could be percieved as having a grudge).
Now, the issue is that I completely understand why you would be extremely annoyed and upset. It impugns your professional integrity, it undermines your dedication to serving your clients and it certainly raises serious questions regards the independence of the member and their own personal prejudices. However, in my opinion and more importantly in my experience, proving such a complaint can be very difficult indeed.
So tread carefully with this. There are official channels of complaint, you will need to be watertight with your approach and you will probably not have any public success. The Chair I complained about was gently nudged towards retirement, whether that was by coincidence or complaint I don't know. What I do know is that it was a pretty drawn-out process and I could use the fact that other people were party to the outrageous comments concerned, both my clients and wing members. Despite this, the decision from the DC was that the Chair denied making such comments and thus, an neutral verdict was reached.
Maybe more importantly, do you feel that your client has reasonable grounds for appealling the decision? If you have an error of law, you could do far more good by concentrating on this and instead learning a lesson from the appeal tribunal proceedings this time around and just swallowing it perhaps? Sticks in the craw I'm sure but your reputation counts for a great deal and what could be perceived as a vexatious complaint may do more bad than good.
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